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Second room booked by Nile Ranger, court told

THE night after allegedly raping a woman in a hotel, Swindon Town striker Nile Ranger was seen at the same front desk booking a room, a court heard.

The 22-year-old former Premier League player denies raping the woman after they had been out together in Newcastle city centre last January.

She told Newcastle Crown Court after swapping messages with him, she met the player in a bar and the next thing she can remember is waking up naked in a hotel room the following morning.

During cross-examination by Toby Hedworth QC, defending, the woman, who gave evidence via a videolink, wept when he suggested she had sex twice with Ranger, and was enthusiastically participating.

She has claimed she was too drunk to consent and was not attracted to the footballer.

She told the jury she returned to the Carlton Hotel, Jesmond, the night after with a relative to see if they could check the CCTV on the premises.

She said: “Nile Ranger was at the front desk. He was booking another room for that night, for the same thing to happen to someone else.

“I know this is not the first time this has happened. “Since this case, two other people have mentioned being in a horrible state in the same sort of circumstances.

“I’m not going to let it happen to someone else.”

Mr Hedworth, for Ranger, said the complainant in a rape case would be granted anonymity while the person accused would be plastered across the media.

He said: “You can say what you like about him. You can say he’s done it to that person, this person, the other person in the hope that mud sticks.”

The woman replied: “That’s not true. I know what happened that night.”

Mr Hedworth suggested the woman changed her mind that evening and became attracted to Ranger.

“No I did not,” she replied.

Mr Hedworth said: “Whether you regretted it afterwards is entirely a different matter.”

She replied: “It’s not true.”

The woman said she was in a terrible state when she got home that morning, still wearing her clothes from the night before.

“I was missing a nail,” she said. “It was obviously not normal for me to come in the house dressed like that. I know it was not a one-night stand. I know I didn’t behave like that.

Having seen CCTV images of herself looking intoxicated, she said: “Judging by those videos, I'm in no fit state to consent to anything.”

Mr Hedworth asked about chatty WhatsApp messages the woman and Ranger swapped that morning, including jokes about Ranger’s dance moves, and she said: “I don't know why I responded like that. I kick myself for responding like that.

“Unless you are in this situation, no one has a right to say how I dealt with the situation.”